July Heart

July's Tatted Heart is called "Peacock Heart" and it's by Birgit's Tatting. Once again, I got the pattern from the internet and it is no longer there, so I can't post the link.

Peacock Heart was a lot of fun and quite easy--it was my favorite heart to do so far. Mostly chains, but I also got to practice shuttle joins again, as well as making consistent picots.

I actually finished this Saturday and Sunday and then moved on back to my ornament:


Since then I've progressed a bit:


Of course, that doesn't show the knot that formed just as I set it down:


Usually these are very easy to just "flick" out of the thread, but sometimes there's a sort of double knot that actually tightens when I flick it. Sigh. I'll have to get out the super-magnifying glasses and tiny pin to pick it out.

I Break for Quilting

My friend and I were able to get together and get started on the quilting portion of the quilt I started last fall. I'm so excited to be nearly done! The left pic shows where I am now on it: All quilted and ready for binding.

Because the feed dogs on my sewing machine don't drop, I did all straight quilting. First, I used the foot that comes standard on the sewing machine (I'm not a sewer--yet--and don't know all the terminology.) My friend Heather recommended a walking foot to reduce puckering, and, surprise, surprise, I have one:


I did still have a bit of puckering, though, but it was just my inexperience showing and I plan to get better. Here is some of my quilting:


You may be thinking, "Wow, that's some serious unstraight sewing!" and you'd be right. Something to work on, especially since I'd like to try my hand at sewing clothing. Also, in the bottom right corner of the above pic, you can see the thread is thick in one spot. That's where I started and stopped. Heather tells me that that is the easy way, but there is a way to start and stop so that it's not as noticeable, and I plan to learn that.

Here's the back with all of it's obvious puckers. But that's OK. I like this fabric best of all I used, and I'll be using it for the binding so I can see it on the front.

I did have a moment of panic when I thought that I had done the final quilting in the wrong spot--around the seam of the border. I looked at the two quilts I have hanging in my studio, to see what they had done. They hadn't done such a seam! Panic! Instead of seeing that one was quilted "in the ditch" and the other had lots of curvy quilting all over the border, I immediately assumed that I had done it wrong. The binding on both is immaculately straight and naturally my mind leaped to the conclusion that they had done their seams on the edge of the quilt and lined up the bindings with that. And of course I had cut the edges off my fabric by then, which made it worse. But I got in touch with Heather, who assured me that I had in fact done it correctly. Whew!
It hasn't been all quilting though. I started working on my ornament, "What Can I Give Him?" by Forget-Me-Nots-In-Stitches. Lauren Sauer is the designer. I have a couple of her pieces in progress and I really love her work. Anyway, I started by doing the outlines of each piece in backstitch:

Well, that didn't work out too well! The heart in the upper left is not only in a bad place, it has a mistake, so the stitching wasn't lining up. Although the long rectangle is not so noticeable, it has the same problems. It was very important to follow the backstitch instructions exactly, so it will line up for finishing. There were some stitches over two, some over three, and a few over one. Working in-hand, because I was too lazy to tack it to stretcher bars, because I'd have to untack it and retack it later, made it very wrinkly. This is better:

Still wrinkly, though. I didn't use steam to press it because I was attaching fusible interfacing:


I don't even want to get into what happens when you cut things out in a hurry. Still, it'll work out, and now the project is attached to stretcher bars and ready for stitching:


Lastly, it's now July and time for a new tatted heart. I'm hoping to get some thread tonight and get started on it. Stay tuned!

Full Steam Ahead

Well, I didn't quite finish DH's ornament by the weekend. I would have, but I napped on Saturday instead. So I finished it on Monday and here it is.

I immediately started on Jazzboy's ornament:



I hadn't been doing Finishing work like I ought to, but today I finally did a small task. I lined up the centers of the stitching, the batting and the foam core with a straight pin.


The little snowman has a belly button:



This way even if I don't get the stitching on straight (something to work on), at least it'll be properly centered.



And I finished Jazzboy's ornament as well:



Very quick and fun and it feels really good to get these small things accomplished. Tomorrow, I hope to start on my own ornament.

Augh!! Frustration!

So I'm happily stitching along feeling pleased with my progress, and I notice that the left side is not going to match up:


Can you see where I made the mistake?


It's the 4th little framing motif on the top from the left (and sorry, I couldn't get any closer or clearer). So I now have to frog-stitch (rip-it, rip-it), that far back! I hate frogging almost as much I hate Finishing. Sometimes it frustrates me so much I have to put the project away for a while, but I am still hopeful that I can finish stitching this by this weekend. After all, it is a holiday.

Making Progress

I am enjoying stitching so much! I don't know why I sometimes stop doing it for a while. Life just gets in the way.

My Finishing task for the day was to mark the centers of the foam core and the batting. This will help me to have a centered Finished Project. I figured out how to do this last December and I must say that it really made a difference in the appearance of the final product:


And here is my progress on DH's ornament; I may have the stitching done on this by the end of the week:

OK, crossing my fingers that I can keep up the momentum!

What's Next, Continued

Continuing from the previous post, here are 2009's Christmas ornaments. First, for GameBoy, "Christmas Stitching" by My Mark:

For JazzBoy, "Let It Snow" by Glory Bee:

For DH, "Winter Sampler" by Little House Needleworks:


For me, "What Can I Give Him?" by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches:

Notice how my piece of fabric was nicely pressed and stored on a trousers' hanger. And finally, I picked a second ornament, "Penny Angel" by The Primitive Needle:


Looks pretty lonely. That was the only thread I could find, for some reason. I also think I was not able to find paillettes for the Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches project.

In any case, since I had already started GameBoy's, I decided to jump right in there. Immediately, I felt much more calm and relaxed than I have in weeks. I decided not to torture myself with Finishing. It does need to be done, and now I will alternate doing small Finishing steps with fun stitching.

I took these pictures Saturday afternoon; by Saturday evening I had finished GameBoy's:


Makes me wonder why I put it off. Today I started on DH's. I started at about 1:10 and stopped at about 3. And here's where I am.:

So I'm really, really hoping to have more regular posts, showing both stitching and Finishing progress. Really.

June Heart, Why I Haven't Posted (aka Finishing, Part 1), and What's Next

So here, below, is the tatted heart for June. It's called 34 Hearts, by Emma Crew, and I found it free on the internet, but cannot link to it, because it seems to have disappeared. Which was a little frustrating, because somehow, my printout didn't have the end of the last sentence: "After completing each heart..." What? Eat a chocolate? Take a walk? I never did find out for sure, but I think it had to do with shaping each little heart. In any case, I was nervous to start it, but it was a lot of fun, and I learned how to make heart-shaped rings:


The plain fact of why I haven't posted is that what the red backpack contained was Finishing work. And I just hate Finishing. I like how it looks, I like the feeling of a completed project, I like to see my improvement over the years, but the process is, for me, deadly dull. So this is all I've accomplished:

That's right, I've laced two out of three backs. True, there was a little bit of work, and that's why I'm calling this section "Finishing, Part 1." First, I collected supplies:

The acid-free foam-core, cardboard, and batting are all cut to the size of the stitching plus about 3/4 inches all around. Or whatever looks good. But they're all the same size. The backing fabric is cut to the same size as the stitched piece, ready for lacing. The ribbon will be cut later in the process. And of course, I need the finished stitching:

Wow, that could do with some pressing:

Much better, although I have learned my lesson about wrinkles and linen and will not be keeping my fabrics and projects balled up in the future. Sadly, I have 30+ projects in totes, all with squished-up pieces of linen. Below shows the lacing of the backing fabric over the cardboard:

Usually, I use quilting thread, but you can use whatever is handy, and obviously I didn't bother to match. I took a really long piece of thread, lined up the fabric with the cardboard, folded down the corner flaps and threaded corner to corner, in a sort of miter. Then I pulled the sides down and laced across. With the stitched parts I will tack down the miters, to make them crisper, but here I obviously didn't.

And that's as far as I got. I decided the best thing to do would be to add in some of the fun. So I pulled out the next tote:


And it contains my 2009 Christmas ornaments from the JCS Ornament Issue:

Pieces of wrinkled linen:

Bundles of threads:


I did get it sorted out. Which I will continue in my next post.

May Heart

Here is my tatted heart for May, "My Heart,"--I don't know who the designer is. I did it in Kreinik Soie Perlee # 2944. To me, it looks more like a butterfly, but it was very quick--just an hour or so.

Below is the first project finished from the red tote: GameBoy's 2009 ornament--I'm really glad to have finally finished something!

April Heart

Here is the April Heart for my Facebook Tatting group challenge. It's Minnie's Love by Heather's Design's and I used DMC Perle Size 8 in Color 67.

Mea Culpa!

Mea maxima culpa!

While sitting in my dorm room--with no computer access--at Women's Conference, I was mulling over Lynda's recent visit. I was missing her already and thinking about the lovely gifts she had made me. In particular, I was considering what I would wear with the necklace she had crocheted for me. Wait. Oh. My. Gosh. I forgot to post a pic of the necklace. It's a beautiful one, too. So beautiful that I put it on right away, and then hung it up with the rest of my necklaces instead of putting it with the other gifts to be photographed. Between that and the flurry of packing, it completely slipped my mind. But I want to share it with the world (or at least my family), so here it is.

And below is a close-up so you can see her work:

And the dorm room where the realization occurred (it kind of made me think of a monk's cell):

More gifts

Lynda also brought me gifts during her visit. I had a really good time while she was here. We went to Shepherd's Bush (stitching), Needlepoint Joint (knitting and stitching) and Sew Sweet (quilting). It was a blast! And we ate at the Lion House Pantry. Now she is on her way back home.

The postcard on the left speaks for itself :-D.












Very fun toys. From the top, clockwise: A pinkeep, three bodkins, a thread holder, a needle-threader, and two tatting shuttles. All have jumprings, so it would be fun to put them on a chain or, even better, make a chatelaine to carry them on!

Beautiful socks with cool wavy cables, and in the perfect colors for a dragonfly, too. Green for water and blue for air. I'm a little afraid to put them on.

Felted slippers. These, I put on right after taking the picture because it's cold here today--very cozy!

A bottom view of a slipper--to keep me from slipping.

And finally, a copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. I cannot wait to read it!

For some reason, my normally ill-tempered cat, Bonzilla, decided to be out-and-out mean and was hissing, snarling and growling at Lynda and her daughter and had to be locked in a room (with food, water and litter-box, of course).
Here is Bonzilla ignoring me. After this she refused to sit for a picture at all. I was hoping to get her in full demon mode, but it was not to be.